


moments to be remembered

by kippenlakes



Category: IT - Stephen King
Genre: Birdwatching, Eddie survives, Everyone Loves Mike Hanlon, Gay, Gay Stanley Uris, Losers Club (IT) Friendship, M/M, Mike Hanlon & Stanley Uris Are Best Friends, Mike Hanlon Deserves Nice Things, Mike Hanlon is a Good Friend, Minor Eddie Kaspbrak/Richie Tozier, Stanley Uris is a Good Friend, Teenage Losers Club (IT), The Losers Club (IT) Love Each Other, richie and eddie end up together, stan still dies sorry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-23
Updated: 2019-10-23
Packaged: 2020-12-28 22:09:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,708
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21144011
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kippenlakes/pseuds/kippenlakes
Summary: No matter what, it was promised it would always be Mike Hanlon and Stanley Uris vs the World. But promises are made to be broken.





	moments to be remembered

**Author's Note:**

> this took me a month to write because of procrastination tingz. but its aok but here are two of our favorite gays. also, this is not proofread so please let me know if there any typos; enjoy! :)

The summer of 1989.

One killer clown. A group of seven losers. Two kids who were too young to know what love was. Life is comprised of moments and let’s just say the summer of 1989 was full of them. Maybe too many moments, really. Time seemed to be constantly moving. 

Except when Stanley Uris and Mike Stanlon were together. 

‘’

“A fucking killer clown, Mike! We-” Stanley hyperventilated, pacing around his room.

“Stan! Just.. take a breath, okay?” 

Mike grabbed Stan’s hand, placing it on his heart. Mike inhaled and exhaled steadily despite the fear coursing through his veins. A killer clown. A fucking killer clown in Derry, Maine. His best friend freaking out. His crush freaking out. 

Stanley fell into Mike’s arms which hugged him tightly, protectively. Both of them were tangled on the floor, unable to even process what was happening in their lives right now. Everyone always thought Stan was a coward, a weakling. Maybe that’s all he’d ever be. A man? Stan scoffed. Nope, just a disappointment. 

“I’m sorry,” Stan sobbed.

“Hey, hey, hey. Look at me,” Mike said softly, so Stan did.

A small smile immediately fell on Stan’s lips amidst the tears. “Hey,” he whispered. 

“I don’t know what you’re thinking, but whatever it is, it’s not true. You don’t need to be sorry for anything, Stan the man,” Mike chuckled slightly. Mike always knew how to make Stan feel better. It was like he knew what Stan was thinking constantly. Stan loved it. But that was just Mike being Mike, right? Right.

And at that moment, time stood still. Two sets of brown eyes stared into each other and-

You could say the gays are oblivious. If you did say that, you’d be right. Stanley Uris and Mike Stanlon were inseparable, often having their own private moments. People could think what they wanted, but there’s no way two guys would be together, right?

Right.

And so, those two sets of brown eyes stopped staring at each other. Physical contact was diminished. The tingles Stanley Uris felt on his arms where Mike Hanlon was holding him were pervasive but ignored. Yes, Mike Hanlon wanted nothing more than to publicly hold hands with someone he loved. Loved? Liked. Loved. But instead of opting for a profession of hidden love, Mike asked, “Better?”

Stan shook his head lightly, “Yes… no. I don’t know. I don’t. But I know you’re here and you’re at least physically okay. So right now, I’m better.”

Mike smiled his private smile for whenever Stan got sappy and sentimental. Stan loved that smile. Just a genuine, soft grin that absolutely did not give his heart palpitations whenever he saw it. Sadly, he didn’t know it was for him, and for him only. 

“You’re such a sap, Stanley Uris. Come on, get in bed. Otherwise, you’re going to worry yourself to death.” Mike stood up to undo the covers on Stan’s bed, Stan groaning as he stood up.

“I’m fine. I’ll be fine. Go home and rest, Mike.”

And as much as Mike wanted to stay, he departed with a soft smile that said everything at once.

Call me later. Try to be okay. Don’t give up. You’re stronger than you think. You’re not a failure, you’re not a coward.

I love you.

‘’

Yes, there was a killer clown who somehow had red balloons fucking everywhere. Yes, it was freaky. Yes, there was a chance of death. Not really a chance, more of a high possibility. Which is why when Pennywise was seemingly defeated, the seven kids who had to have been brought into each other’s lives for a reason were relieved, to say the least. The week after the blood oath and Pennywise, the losers tried to be as normal as can be. There was still time in the summer left. Time that could be spent with friends. Time that could be spent with crushes in a secluded clubhouse, talking about the future. Maybe time that could be spent cuddling, but accidentally, of course.

“Are you finally becoming a grandma, Uris?!” Mike yelled behind him, the wind exhilarating as he and Stanley raced to the clubhouse on their bikes.

“Fuck you!” Stanley yelled back.

Stanley Uris and Mike Hanlon typically had a tender relationship. This, of course, wasn’t always the case. After both of them entered the clubhouse, Mike headed straight for the hammock while Stan grabbed two shower caps. “Scooch,” Stan waved his hand, signaling Mike to move a little.  
Stan joined Mike on the hammock after handing him a shower cap.

“Thanks to Stanley Uris, I can say there will never be spiders where I don’t want them to be,” Mike proudly put on the shower cap.

Stan smiled brightly at him but faltered when he thought of Richie quickly dismissing the idea. Mike had stolen one of Richie’s comic books but looked up for a moment to see Stan deep in thought. “Penny for your thoughts?”

“No, keep your money,” Stan said absently.

Mike put the comic on the floor before ripping the shower cap off of Stan’s head, snapping him back into reality. Stan wriggled trying to get it back, acting frustrated as he got comfortable in the hammock again once his cap sat neatly on his head and he looked down at his lap. “What’re you thinking, Stan?” Mike knocked his knees against Stan, causing him to look up at Mike.

It took Stan a few moments to say, “Do you think we’ll all be friends in the future?”

Mike was slightly confused but knew how insecure Stan could get, so in a moment of courage, he grabbed Stan’s hand. He waited for Stan to object, only to be met with a tight grip. When Mike looked up, Stan had his head on his knees, twiddling with a piece of string from his sock. 

“It’s just-- I know we’re friends now. But do any of our parents still talk to their middle school friends? How often to adults even stay in touch with their childhood friends? What if we all leave Derry and just forget about one another? What if things change and we never speak again? What if all of you guys go on to do great things while I’m stuck here? What if-”

Before Stan could continue, Mike grabbed his other hand, bringing both of the smaller boy’s hands to the middle. Mike played with Stan’s fingers to calm him down. 

It worked.  
Mike looked down at their hands and spoke. “First off, everything you’re saying has the word ‘if.’ Stan, you know we all love you, right? There’s no way any of us can forget what happened this summer. We’re all connected, always will be. And hey,” Mike nudged Stan slightly, “If anything, it’s you and me. You and me forever, Stan the Man.”

Stan stared at Mike, “Promise?”

“Yeah, I promise.”

Mike held Stan’s hands tighter, fearful of some form of objection, but none came. Stan shifted closer to Mike, reveling in the safe environment Mike seemed to provide wherever he went. Mike liked being Stan’s safe place.

Promises were made in the summer of 1958. Some were promises to go get ice cream every Friday with the losers. Some were to always wear shower caps in the clubhouse. Some were to stay in each other’s lives forever.

But, alas, promises were made to be broken.

‘’

“One chocolate chip cookie dough and one vanilla with chocolate chips, please,” Stan asked the ice cream dude behind the counter. Mike was on his way to the ice cream shop a couple of minutes from the annual Derry festival, where they’d be meeting up with the rest of the losers club. So what else was Stan supposed to do except spend his saved up money on ice cream for himself and his…

Hangout with his best friend. Yup, that was it. Just a platonic hangout. With Mike. And the rest of the losers club.

Although he wanted it to be much more.

The door opened, jingling the bell at the top, causing Stan to turn his head around. It was Mike Hanlon. He could see Eddie and Richie race past the ice cream shop through the window, yelling at each other and chuckled lightly. Stan took in everything at once when he looked to Mike. His golden smile, the one that was plastered on his face for a few moments after someone made him laugh. Mike was wearing the nicest collared shirt he owned with a pair of jeans. He looked just like he usually did, but Stanley would never think he looked anything short of beautiful.

“Hey, Stanny,” Mike stood next to him.

“Hey, Mike,” Stan grinned at him. The boy behind the counter handed Stan two ice cream cones and Stan proceeded to hand the chocolate chocolate chip one to Mike. 

The two infatuated boys walked with their bikes to the festival and easily came alive with their conversation even though it was just about the new game coming to the arcade soon. The thing is, no matter what the topic of conversation was, Stan and Mike never got bored of talking to each other. Or not talking to each other; silences were filled with comfort and were void of awkwardness. And if there were moments of silence where two hands were to brush against each other and soft smiles were to appear on the faces of two sweet boys, that was cool, too.

That’s just how it was when you were with someone you loved.

‘’

It’s no secret Stanley Uris likes birds. In fact, he loves them. And Mike Hanlon loves hearing Stanley Uris talk about his love for birds. So when Stan invited him to go birdwatching with him for the first time by themselves, who was he to refuse? Every other time everyone tagged along, there was just chaos, much to Stan’s dismay. And don’t get it wrong, Mike expected it to be quiet, just not this quiet.

When Stan invited him, it was kind of out of the blue. It didn’t even seem like Stan himself planned on doing it.

“Don’t forget all of us are meeting at the clubhouse after school.” Mike stopped by Stan’s locker, just as he did every day before math class. 

“Fuck.. yeah, I’ll be there,” Stan replied, stuffing books into his locker in exchange for a comically thick textbook.

“You didn’t forget, did you? We were going to catch up, it’s been a while,” Mike leaned against someone else’s locker, casually staring at Stan. In a platonic, friendly way, of course.

“No, I was just going to go bird watching. I just got this new book from the store, it’s so cool, Mike! I was just browsing for a book for history but I just couldn’t resist. I’ll go another day, though!” Stan rambled until he saw Mike staring at him, smiling softly.

Stan’s face flushed pink and he coughed, trying to hide it. “Um… would you,” Stan’s voice was nervous and slightly shaky, “want to come with me?” Stan was fidgeting with the textbook laying in his arms, waiting for the boy’s response.

Mike snapped out of it, surprised. “Really? I thought you never wanted us to go with you again,” he nudged Stan’s shoulder.

“Just Richie and Eddie. Never again. But I’d like if you came. Unless you find it too boring, it was stupid to ask, never--”

“Yeah, I’d love to,” Mike replied bluntly.

And that was that. Mike walked Stan to his advanced math class, teasing the boy for being so smart he left the other losers behind. 

Anyways, that brings us to Mike sitting very still and very quietly while Stan muttered to himself while looking through a pair of binoculars. On the way to the forest, Stan told Mike that he was hoping to see a very specific bird: the goldfinch. 

It was no secret Stanley had a talent for the arts. All that filled his sketchbooks were drawings of his friends that no one knew about and drawings of birds that everyone knew about. The goldfinch itself had taken up a couple of pages in his new sketchbook. Stan had read the goldfinch symbolizes that life is yours to live and grew to love the bird even more.

So, as Stan and Mike sat on the ground of the forest lowland, waiting for a goldfinch to appear, they came to grow restless. It was too quiet. The two boys never seemed to run out of things to talk about, but both of them were too scared to say anything.

Unbeknownst to the other boy, each of them had their own motives for the day planned. These motives instilled an environment of tension for the pure fact that nervousness was coursing through the veins of both Stanley Uris and Mike Hanlon.

Before meeting up with Mike, Stan said: “Today is the day.” The day to tell Mike about his feelings and hopefully not be flat out rejected by someone whose sexuality he didn’t know. Did Mike even like guys? 

The crush Stan developed on Mike happened all at once. Maybe he had liked him for a while before that and never realized, but his realization seemed to come at him with full force months ago during school.

It was at lunch and Mike was running late because he had to talk to one of his teachers, which left the other losers to wait at their usual spot by the back of the school where Bev would smoke, before heading to their lunch table. Mike was taking long, so Stan told the others to go sit and eat while he waited for Mike. The rest were hesitant but agreed realizing they wouldn’t be able to sneak food into Ms. Eckert’s class.

When Mike ran up to Stan, running and out of breath, guilt hid behind his eyes. There were ten minutes left of their thirty-minute lunch, and Stan had stood waiting patiently, holding his lunch in his hands. “I’m so sorry. Mr. Wagoner was talking to me about tutoring someone for English. We had to set up a schedule and everything,” Mike apologized, putting his arm around Stan’s shoulders as they walked toward the other losers. The sun decided to shine especially bright that day and Mike was rambling on about something he learned in history, a grin as wide as can be. 

Mike had a tendency to laugh in between the simple jokes he told and this always made everyone smile. The genuine human that was Mike Hanlon. 

So when Mike smiled at Stan with a soft smile while the sun accentuated his features, talking about how Nathaniel Bacon was a bitch, Stan felt butterflies. He didn’t know what it meant at the time, but when he got home, Mike took place in his mind instead of his homework.

For Mike, it was slightly different. Mike always saw the best in people, a true optimist, that one. Stan had a tendency to put himself down whenever he made a small mistake and Mike being Mike, did something about it.

He was going to pull a Ben Hanscom. Ben always wrote the sweetest poems whether it be towards his friends or his not-so-obvious crush on Beverly. Mike decided to write one for his friend, Stan. Stan had so much to live for and had so many qualities Mike wish he had. Stanley Uris made it very easy to fall in love with him. Love him, not fall in love. Stan made it easy to love him. So when Mike started writing, it was as if he couldn’t stop. There was never going to be enough that he could say to truly encapture Stanley Uris. 

This poem was brought to the clearing, where Stan and Mike were currently birdwatching. The small piece of paper seemed to weigh down Mike. But all his worries were swept away temporarily when Stan slapped his shoulder multiple times to get his attention. Stan’s smile was so wide that Mike couldn’t help but match his smile. 

“Look,” Stan whispered excitedly while pointing at a tree a couple of feet away.

A goldfinch. 

“It’s so beautiful, Mike. Did you know that goldfinches are a symbol telling you that life is yours to live? To find joy in the present and just… enjoy it. I think that’s amazing." 

Stan gave his binoculars to Mike so he could take a closer look, and so it would give Stan an excuse to just watch him. When Mike took the binoculars off, he was met with Stan’s soft smile, big brown eyes; his curls were slightly messy from the light breeze and Mike wanted to kiss him right then and there.

“Ready to go?” Mike whispered.

“Yeah,” Stan said softly.

Mike and Stan got up, Mike offering Stan his hand (and Stan taking it, of course). “Before we head back, I have something for you,” Mike said as he reached into his pocket. Feeling the piece of paper, his shaking fingers wrapped around it. Mike handed Stan the folded paper, the other boy raising his eyebrows slightly.

“Just read it when you get home or something, you don’t have to read it right now,” Mike said.

“Thank you, Mike.”

Mike started turning around to walk back to Derry as they were on the outskirts of town. Before he could take a step, Stan blurted out, “I think I know what it says, though.”

Mike whipped his head around and both of them looked deeply into each other’s eyes. Mike looked down at Stan’s other hand. In it, was a folded piece of paper with To: Mike in Stan’s neat handwriting.

A smile grew on Mike’s face. Not a small, reserved one but a full grin just encapsulated with so much joy and relief. Stan’s smile was one that could rival Mike’s. Stan, the boy who acted like an adult, almost always serious, the one who would try to hide his true laugh; was grinning as wide as he could. Before Mike could say anything, Stan jumped into him, giving him a tight hug and what else could Mike do besides return it?

The latter half of the day was filled with laughs, cuddles, and just pure happiness. Everything just clicked and Stanley Uris and Mike Hanlon were nothing short of happy.

\--

But of course, everything came crashing down. It was senior year, college letters came in, graduation was so close, and the losers club was going to be split up. They all opened their college results together at Richie’s house and spent the afternoon reminiscing about the past years in Derry, promising each other they’d meet up as often as they could.

Stan was going to California and Mike was staying in Maine. They were going to be across the nation from each other. And when this realization hit, it hit hard.

Both Stan and Mike were reasonable people, realistic ones. So that night, they broke up. It was for the best. Neither of them had the money to travel. The only reason most of the losers were leaving Derry was with scholarships to different colleges. Mike was staying in Maine to help with the farm. And so, it seemed like the best option. 

The day Stan left was full of tears and goodbyes. Both of them knew they would see each other again, but there was a sense of finality on that day. And the further Stnaley Uris got from Derry, the longer he stayed away, his memories of Mike Stanlon faded away. And he didn’t even know it. 

When Mike learned of what happened, everyone forgetting Derry and each other, his world came crashing down. Pennywise filled his thoughts, becoming a sort of obsession, filling in the areas of his mind the losers club used to fill. It was a distraction that turned into something completely different. 

\--

Stanley Uris took a bath. 

When Beverly was on the phone with Stan’s wife, Patricia, Mike’s mind drew a blank. Everything was happening too fast and too much was happening. Everyone’s faces looked guilty, sad, their eyes filled with something so powerful. Grief, anger, loss.

But they had a fucking clown to kill. Again.

And so when Pennywise was dead, all the losers felt a weight lifted off their shoulders that they unconsciously had even when they were out of Derry for the past 27 years. Ben and Bev finally got together. Richie and Eddie finally admitted their feelings for each other after Eddie was dragged out of Neibolt. The losers couldn’t lose another person and thank god they didn’t. Bill found the ending of his book. And Mike got the fuck out of Derry. 

As he drove out of the town he grew up in, he stopped at a clearing. Quiet as he could be, he sat down and waited. Mike was never a fan of birdwatching. But when he saw a goldfinch land on a branch a little ways away from him, he was reminded that life is his to live. 

But he had someone he needed to talk to.

Patricia heard the doorbell ring, wondering who it could be. Everyone had already given their condolences and prayers, the funeral had already happened, so who could it possibly be? When she swung open the front door, there stood Mike Hanlon. 

“Mike?” Patricia asked. Mike looked at her and saw so much sadness. There were bags under her eyes, her hair was slightly messed up, the way she carried herself made her look frail. Mike felt for her.

“You know who I am?”

“Stan’s letter,” she chuckled. “To say the least, my husband is a great storyteller and writer. He might’ve given Bill a run for his money.”

“Good artist, too,” Mike added.

Patty gave him a soft smile. It was nice to talk to someone who loved her husband as much as she does. “Do come in, Mike.”

Mike stepped inside, nodding to say thank you. Patricia led him to the kitchen island, “Would you like any tea or coffee? I’ve got some water boiling right now.”

“Some tea would be great, thank you, Patricia.”

“I have something for you. Maybe you can share it with the rest of Stan’s childhood friends the next time you see them,” Patricia said while heading to another room. “When I read Stan’s letter, I didn’t know whether or not he was joking, but he wouldn’t lie. And I did some research about Derry, actually, after he passed. It took a lot of digging, but it makes sense.”

Patricia came back into the kitchen with a pained expression on her face. One full of longing and loss. Mike had the very same look in his eyes. In her hands, was a photo album and sketchbook, which she set on the table and sat next to Mike. “I think Stan always had this with him, ever since he left Derry. I remember when we were moving into this house and we were packing up his stuff from his apartment, we stumbled across it. He said ‘It’s probably not important,’ but after I suggested throwing it away, he was adamant about keeping it. And the sketchbook was just always on one of his shelves. I think inside he knew they were important.”

Tears started to fill Mike’s eyes as he slowly flipped through the pages of the old book. He could feel the crinkled water from the day the losers club gave Stan the photo album for his birthday. They were at the quarry and Stan was sitting on land going through the new bird book he got. Richie had started to get hungry and went up to the shore and jumped on Stan, splashing water on the photo album next to Stan. 

“All of us gave this to him on his birthday. We had been saving up for a couple of months before his birthday to buy him this book and this bird encyclopedia. I remember the day of his birthday we acted like we had nothing planned. We thought we were so slick,” Mike chuckled, “But Stan figured us out in probably a minute flat.”

Mike briefly looked through the sketchbook. It was just filled with drawings of the losers club and birds. And every single drawing was breathtaking. There were drawings of Richie and Eddie cuddling, Bev smoking, Bill on silver, Mike in the middle of laughing, all seven of them in the clubhouse. Mike sniffled and quickly wiped away tears threatening to fall.

“Thank you for loving Stanley, Mike,” Patricia said beside him. Her voice was meaningful, conveying everything she wanted to, everything she knew. Her eyes were filled with tears. She thought it’d be harder meeting one of the members of the losers club, but seeing and talking to Mike; hearing stories told about Stan’s childhood… it brought so much relief to her. Stanley Uris was loved. He lived his life and found so much joy in the present. His life was his to live and although it may have ended, Stanley Uris lived. He loved with every part of him, cared for everyone with no hope for reward, and went bird watching a countless amount of times.

“Thank you for loving Stanley, Patricia.”

The day was coming to a close and after hours of talking with Patricia, Mike headed back to the hotel where he was staying at for a couple of days. Patricia gave him the album when he left, and Mike was so grateful. The losers club allows Stan’s past to be known and Patricia provided how he lived his life when he was older. Stan did indeed stay like he was as a child, but taller.

After that day, the losers club was determined to see each other more often. They visited Patricia often and Eddie finally officially divorced Myra. Ben and Bev got married in the summer, Bill came out with another bestselling book (with an ending everyone was happy with this time), Richie started writing his own comedy material and did better than ever.

It was 3 years after they killed Pennywise that the losers club returned to Derry. It still looked the same, the ice cream from the parlor remained the best to exist, and best of all, no more kids had gone missing due to a killer clown.  
The group of seven sat inside the synagogue, hoping to see Stan’s parents after the current session. It was so long ago when Stan “became a man.” If they could, every single one of them would go back in time just to spend some more time with Stanley. That day, they ate lunch with the Uris's and Mike led them to the clearing where he and Stan had gone bird watching for the first time. 

And there, they saw a goldfinch. Just a single one. It landed on a branch not far from where they were sitting and for the rest of the time, the seven were there, the goldfinch stayed with them. It only left when they got up to go back to the hotel. 

The next day, Ben brought some wood and tools to build a birdhouse in the front of the Uris house. It seemed like the right thing to do. All of them cleared the entrance to the clubhouse, making it visible. For anyone or anything that would need it. Maybe another group of seven kids would meet and use their clubhouse. They’d have a hammock and shower caps to keep spiders out of their hair. They’d have a comic to read and a safe space.

A week passed in Derry and the losers club once again when their separate ways. But they’d never forget again. 

Once, there was a group of seven kids. They called themselves the losers club. Through everything, even when they didn’t know each other, it was still always Mike Hanlon and Stan the Man. This group later became six, but it was okay. Stanley Uris would’ve wanted the rest of his friends to live their lives to the fullest extent like they had nothing to lose. Because they didn’t. I mean, the thing about being a loser is, you have nothing to lose.

**Author's Note:**

> thank you for reading! i never know how to end stories so i hope this sufficed. insert soft cute big-eyed emoji here


End file.
